University of Nottingham - Dr Martin GarnettThe team aim to produce a much more realistic cell culture model of drug uptake so that fewer animal experiments are needed, with the ultimate aim being to replace these altogether. Animal experiments for drug testing range from in vitro cell assays through to assays on excised animal tissue and chronic experiments in surgically modified dogs.

Measuring how drugs get into the body is important to the pharmaceutical industry. As various nanoparticles are now produced, there is also concern about whether, how, and in what quantities nanoparticles can get into the body.

The main barrier to drug uptake in humans is a layer of cells known as the epithelium. Currently available cellular models are too simple to determine drug and nanoparticle uptake accurately, so animal experiments are still widely used. The pharmaceutical industry still uses a wide range of models to predict oral uptake of drugs under development. These range from in vitro cell assays like permeability of drugs through Caco-2 cells, assays on excised animal tissue, and chronic experiments in surgically modified dogs. In 2011 there were 57,624 mammalian experiments in the UK associated with ‘alimentary studies’ mainly using mice and rats. A subset of these experiments would have been associated with drug testing, although the pharmaceutical industry also carries out many animal experiments abroad for cost and regulatory reasons. The issue of how reliable/realistic the cellular models are will affect the number of animal experiments carried out.

The Nottingham research team aim to produce a much more realistic cell culture model of drug uptake so that fewer animal experiments are needed, with the ultimate aim being to replace these altogether.

1 in 8 women in the UK will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. In partnership with Breast Cancer UK we want to raise £90,000 to fund an innovative research project that will help us to prevent the disease in more people in the future.

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Taleen Shakouri from the University of Hertfordshire, will be developing a computer model of certain toxicology tests which has the potential to replace many experiments currently conducted on primates and mice.

Edward Nendick at the University of Edinburgh will be using one of the latest cutting edge, gene editing technologies, CRISPR-Cas9, in cell culture to further our understanding of schizophrenia without using mice.

The ARC, at the Blizard Institute QMUL, will provide a unique environment for scientists to work together to develop human-based models of skin, breast and prostate cancer, replacing mouse models. It also aims to inspire the next generation of scientists through education about animal free research.

In 2015, the number of animals used for the first time in procedures for scientific purposes was 4.07 million (4,069,349). The number of procedures that were conducted on animals is slightly higher at 4.14 million (4,142,631). These numbers, over the past few years have remained fairly similar with both the number of animals used and the number of procedures conducted hovering around the 4 million mark consistently.

With your help, we can free animals from laboratories for good.Our work is funded entirely by your generous support. Your donation helps to fund some of the most advanced and successful human-related techniques in many areas of medical research including cancer, Alzheimer's, asthma, heart and liver disease.

The use of animals in experimentation and testing in the UK is regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, known as ASPA. This Act states the legal provisions that have been created for the protection of animals used for experimental or other scientific purposes.